just picked up this book "African Rhythm and African Sensibility: Aesthetics and Social Action in African Musical Idioms" by John Miller Chernoff
was written in the 1960s as part of his study and involvement in learning to play African drums very interesting parallels to techno music (may be obvious to some but interesting and entertaining to read it all the same) see this quote: "Those who dislike African music respond to it in several ways. Some say that they are bored, that the music is so monotonously repetitive that it just dulls the senses. Others, alternatively, say that the music is so complicated rhythmically that they get confused and cannot make sense of it. These people are likely to add that because they cannot figure out any pattern, they feel threatened that either the monotony or the confusion might take them over, and they do their best to ignore the unpleasantness. Less tolerant people have felt their sanity or their morals challenged, and in the past some of them even took the truly remarkable step of forbidding Africans to make music. Those with an open mind wish the music were more quiet." (pages 27-28) MEK
